so i can't be the only one here that totally hates these, right? i've had a cobalt sitting around for about eight months now that a friend let me borrow. he got it when he wasn't too good at ddr and stopped using it totally after very much arcade play. when i helped him move last december, he didn't have room for it so i took it, asking if i could mod it and see if i could make it any better, at which point he said he was willing to try anything. so, eight months later, i finally remembered that i have this thing around and i should try to mod it.
the biggest problem with cobalt fluxes is they just aren't sensitive enough. on edges, the player has to hit fairly hard, and on corners the player just won't be hitting any arrows at all. basically, the player has to hit the center of the panel, or else he or she will either a) miss the arrow entirely, or b) get some sort of late judgment. this presents quite a problem for me since i am lazy (meaning i hit the arrows near the edges, often in the corners, and lightly). i am also very competitive with this game (entered 40+ tournaments, have 149 arcade AAAs [PFCs], SDG'd all of extreme AC except psmh, etc., etc.). between these two things, i really hate the cobalt flux pad. it may be durable, but it really doesn't work well, nor does it have the sensitivity that is advertised.
so, the other day, i ripped open the down arrow on this pad to attempt to make it work better. first idea was to use pennies in the corners to make the pad need less movement to contact. once they were taped in there, they didn't work very well (i'm guessing due to the taping method, but i didn't want to cover up the velcro for obvious reasons). tried this with two different types of tape and it really didn't seem to be working well.
i remembered how arcade pads have four areas per arrow where the brackets over top of the sensors (those things that push them down) contact the panel. i decided to try putting pennies in the same areas where those brackets are in the arcade since i can play just fine there. it just took $0.48 + cost of duct tape.
came up with this:
and it works really really well. with that done to all four arrows (top row of pennies removed on the up arrow since it was over sensitive), i started FCing and low SDGing everything instantly.
examples of scores i got today:
Keep on Movin' - 1 (socks, lazy, slightly sick)
Ecstasy - 2 (socks, lazy, slightly sick)
more deep - 2 (socks, lazy, more sick than before)
sakura heavy - 3 (shoes, chair, drugged up on ibuprofen so i didn't feel the sick)
trip machine climax - 1 (shoes, chair, drugged up on ibuprofen)
300 - 4 + 1 miss in the jacks (shoes, chair, lazy after the freeze, drugged up on ibuprofen)
heaven is a 57 - 2 (shoes, chair, drugged up on ibuprofen)
vs being unable to FC anything unmodded. i think this really helped out.
i have no idea if this will damage the contacts in any way, but somehow i can't imagine it making a significant effect on how a normal cobalt plays if one were to remove the pennies.
modding cobalt flux pads 
